Federal Outreach
A ‘One Community’ Agenda
How We Can Create Great Places for Our Military to Live, Train and Defend our Nation
Major challenges at home and around the world remind us that the fence line surrounding our military bases does not matter when tackling many of the big issues facing our military, service members and their families. It is only when communities and the military are working as one, that we make a difference – this is the One Community Policy Agenda. The Association of Defense Communities believes the components of its One Community agenda will foster a new level of military-community collaboration that can tackle four key issues facing our nation and national defense:
Improve Military Family Quality of Life for Our Service Members and Families in Collaboration with Communities
Service members and military families deserve to live in communities that provide high-quality services, including schools, housing, social services and childcare. We must support communities and military families by:
- Establishing clear and equitable community and installation expectations for measuring quality of life and resources to address these challenges.
- Promoting joint military-community efforts to ensure military families have access to high-quality schools, childcare, healthcare, affordable housing, and special needs programs.
- Identifying and promoting innovative efforts and resources to make service members feel welcomed and valued in every community that becomes their military home.
Invest in the People Who Make Our Military Work
The people who support our installations, which are essential to our nation’s defense, are more important than ever. We support everyone from the cyber expert and ship builder to the primary school student who will become a future member of the military or workforce. We need to invest in our current and future defense workforce by:
- Working collaboratively at the local and national level to understand and plan for the evolving expectations and capabilities of the defense sector workforce
- Promoting military, community and industry efforts to develop training and education programs in K-12 schools (e.g., DODEA grant programs, STARBASE, Cyber Patriot, FIRST Robotics and other STEM programs)
- Investing in defense workforce development initiatives that ensure we have a skilled workforce for the future (e.g., the Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment (IBAS), Defense Manufacturing Communities Support Program and other DoD programs)
- Leveraging community and state resources to support military spouse hiring and training initiatives and DoD’s overall recruitment needs.
Invest in Infrastructure and Programs that Support Missions and Families
Our military and our families rely on a complex network of roads, buildings, facilities, utilities, and land – both on and off base – to support critical training, power-projection platforms and the everyday needs of our families. We need to prioritize investment in our nation’s defense infrastructure by:
- Maintaining funding and making permanent the authority for the Defense Community Infrastructure Program (DCIP) and ensure the program has sufficient flexibility to address the dynamic needs of defense communities.
- Promoting sustained investment in our installations through a stable, robust military construction program that replenishes any redirected funds.
- Enhancing the value of public-public (P4) and public-private partnerships (P3) to maximize a full range of tools that leverage resources to improve the efficiency and resilience of defense infrastructure.
- Prioritizing DoD’s focus on infrastructure and resilience appointing a new Assistant Secretary of Defense for Installations, Energy & Environment.
- Strengthening the ongoing collaboration between military and community by supporting and enhancing the role of the DoD Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation
(OLDCC).
Advance Climate Resilience for Installations and Communities through Collaboration
Sea level rise, extreme weather events and other climate-related issues are having real impacts on our installations, defense communities and national security. Responding to this threat must be coordinated across the fence line, regionally and nationally by:
- Creating a coordination point within the Office of the Secretary of Defense to connect DoD, the services, and communities on climate change issues, ideally through OLDCC.
- Continuing funding and support for the Military Installation Sustainability (MIS) program.
- Embracing programs, including DCIP, that support joint installation-community climate resilience planning and infrastructure projects.
- Developing program benchmarks that are clear, quantifiable, and objective, and provide a baseline measurement of DCIP and MIS program performance.
Defense Communities Caucus
Defined by a mission of force and family, readiness and resiliency, our installations and communities are the foundation of our military’s competitive edge. The strength of our bases and communities are forever linked through a dynamic and ever evolving partnership. The Defense Communities Caucus, a bipartisan group of lawmakers, provides a unified voice for that evolving partnership, and works to ensure that defense communities and military installations have the support they need to serve the ones who protect us.
Senate Caucus Co-Chairs
- Jerry Moran (R-KS)
- Gary Peters (D-MI)
House Caucus Co-Chairs
- Henry Cuellar (TX-28)
- Doug Lamborn (CO-05)
Federal Outreach and Advisory Council
Brittany Smart
Fairbanks North Star Borough, AK
Mike Ward
Huntsville/Madison County Chamber of Commerce, AL
Daniel Mann
Fort Chaffee Redevelopment Authority, AR
Ryan Lee
City of Glendale, AZ
Sandy Person
Solano EDC/ Travis Community Consortium, CA
Fred Muerer
Monterey Bay Defense Alliance, CA
Keith Klaehn
Defense Mission Task Force, CO
Daniel Rhoades
21st Century Partnership, GA
Vera Topasna
Office of the Governor of Guam, GU
Kimberly Huth
St. Clair County, IL
Jill McClune
Army Alliance, MD
Jamie Miller
Mississippi Development Authority, MS
Greg Doyon
Montana Defense Alliance/ City of Great Falls, MT
Patricia Harris
North Carolina Military Affairs Commission, NC
Tom Ford
Grand Forks County, ND
Brian Dicken
Toledo Regional Chamber of Commerce, OH
Michael Gessel
Dayton Development Coalition, OH
Joseph Garrity
Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission
Mike Cooper
State of Oklahoma, OK
Keith Sledd
Heart of Texas Defense Alliance, TX
Diane Rath
Alamo Area Council of Governments, TX
Glenn Barham
Sheppard Military Affairs Committee, TX
Brian Garrett
Utah Department of Veterans and Military Affairs, UT
Mark Shepherd
Clearfield City, UT
Stacie Henn
Prince William County, Dept of Economic Development, VA
Rick Dwyer
Hampton Roads Military and Federal Facilities Alliance, VA
Don Anderson
City of Lakewood, WA
Alex Brickner
SBIR Programs, UMass Lowell Research Institute
John Simmons (COUNCIL ADVISOR)
Partner,
The Roosevelt Group
George Schlossberg (GENERAL COUNSEL)
ADC General Counsel
Partners, Kutak Rock LLP